Girl molested on road

A 20-year-old student of a south Calcutta college was allegedly molested in front of a shop at the Mullickbazar crossing where she had gone to get a mobile phone top-up on Thursday afternoon.

The girl lodged a complaint with Park Street police station on Friday against the unidentified person.

According to the complaint filed by the girl, she had gone around noon on Thursday to get a mobile phone top-up at the shop on AJC Bose Road, where her “body was touched” by an unknown person.

The shop is barely a few metres from the AJC Bose Road-Park Street crossing.

In her complaint, the college student stated that the person who allegedly molested her “had a tilak on his forehead”. She could not provide any more details of the accused, said the police.

While waiting in front of the shop to get the top-up, the girl felt someone touching her.

She raised the alarm but the man had fled by then, she told the police. Nobody else could see him.

“A case has been started against unknown person under Section 354 A (I) of the Indian Penal Code. We are investigating the matter,” said a police officer.

Under the section, a man committing any of the acts — physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures, a demand or request for sexual favours, showing pornography against the will of a woman or making sexually coloured remarks — is guilty of the offence of sexual harassment.

The incident underscores why Calcutta ranks third in the country in terms of crimes reported against women (according to the 2012 report of the National Crime Records Bureau).